


Years Go By

by madbutterfly



Category: Being Human (UK), The Almighty Johnsons
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Future Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-25
Updated: 2015-07-25
Packaged: 2018-04-11 04:19:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4421078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madbutterfly/pseuds/madbutterfly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Whether he wants to or not, Mitchell can't get any older. The same can't be said for Anders.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Years Go By

“You really haven’t aged a day.” 

Mitchell tilted his head slightly. “You know what I am.”

“Knowing isn’t the same as actually seeing it in action.” Anders rubbed a hand over his hair, frowning a little. He honestly only had a few grey hairs, but Mitchell and Anders both knew they were there and Mitchell could tell that’s what Anders was thinking about. He complained about them almost every morning, making them impossible to forget.

Huffing a little, Mitchell tried to smile. “I don’t know what you want me to say. That’s just not something I’m going to experience.” No matter how much he wanted to - and he found, now, that he kind of _did_ want to experience it. He was as afraid of death as he had always been, but he wanted to live a real, human life with Anders. A normal life. It had been beyond his grasp since he first laid eyes on Herrick, and now it felt closer than ever - but he knew it wasn’t. He was still a vampire. Anders was still human. There was nothing conventional about them and there never would be.

“I’m not really expecting you to say anything. It’s just the fact that it’s been ten years and… well, I don’t know. It’s just strange to think that we’ve been together so long but we can’t grow old together.” Anders rested his elbow on his knee and propped his chin up on his hand, scrutinising Mitchell where he sat in the armchair. “You’ll just keep on going and going. I’m not the first person you’ve loved and I’m not going to be the last. Am I?”

Mitchell, honestly, had never let himself think about it. He didn’t want to think about what would happen when Anders wasn’t around anymore. He wanted to say that he would stake himself when that day came, but he wasn’t sure if he believed it. He didn’t know if he would ever be truly ready to face dying.

Most of all, he was terrified that he would go back to the way he used to be, killing indiscriminately. Anders was primarily what kept those urges tucked away, and some days Mitchell didn’t even think about blood. No one else had managed that. He didn’t want to start killing again, not after so long without.

Mitchell sighed. “I don’t know what I’ll do with myself when… when…”

“When I’m worm food?”

“…I really wish you wouldn’t put it like that,” Mitchell said, glaring a little.

But could he really see himself with anyone other than Anders? It had never really crossed his mind. Anders was right when he said he wasn’t the first person Mitchell had loved, but with everyone else there had been a sense of impermanence. An inevitability that they’d leave, that within a few years it’d be over and Mitchell would move on to something different.

That had never been the case with Anders, even back when they first got together. It might have been the fact that Anders had been a god when they met - he understood how it felt to be something not quite human. (There had been that same understanding from Annie as well, but he’d always felt like he’d tricked her into loving a version of him that wasn’t real. It wasn’t the same.)

He still sometimes wanted to turn Anders into a vampire. Even if the bloodlust was something he could generally ignore now, he didn’t want to lose him.

But he wouldn’t do it.

He knew he wouldn’t. It’s not like the idea had never been brought up between them, but they both agreed that it wasn’t something they should seriously consider. There was no saying how it would change Anders as a person, if it would even change him at all. Most of all, Mitchell knew how it felt, and he didn’t want to put Anders through the same thing, regardless of how much he wanted him by his side forever.

Mitchell was brought out of his thoughts by the sound of Anders snapping his fingers a few inches away from his face.

“Hey. Earth to Dracula.” Anders gave a tiny smile, lowering his hand again when Mitchell met his eyes. “Did I bring you down?”

“A little,” Mitchell said sheepishly. “Maybe that’s not something I want to think about.”

“Believe it or not, it’s not my favourite thing to contemplate either,” said Anders, stretching his arms out in front of him with a groan and flopping back against the sofa again. “But hey, I’m still very much alive. You don’t need to work out where you’ll go from here quite yet, do you?”

Mitchell paused. There was a barely perceptible edge to Anders’ voice, like he was trying to be light-hearted when he wasn’t feeling it. Was he trying to ask if Mitchell was planning on sticking around…? Really, after ten years, could he still have even the slightest doubt? He’d very obviously had his doubts in the first year they were together, but Mitchell had assumed Anders had accepted that he had absolutely no intentions of leaving.

Well, if that _was_ what he was thinking, Mitchell couldn’t exactly let that go on.

“Absolutely, I’m quite happy where I am now and there’s no point in worrying,” Mitchell said firmly, moving from the armchair to the couch so he could sit next to Anders, immediately grabbing him round the middle and squeezing him tight.

“Ah! Murder!” Anders squawked, but there was a laughter in his voice. He wriggled in protest. “You’re crushing my ribcage, idiot!”

“You call it crushing your ribcage, I call it showing _exactly_ how much I love you, Anders Johnson!” Mitchell announced, and stopped squeezing, though he didn’t let go. “I love you and we’re both here now and that’s really all that matters.”

Anders sighed, and it sounded exasperated but he was leaning into Mitchell’s embrace. “How can a vampire be so sappy? Unbelievable.”

“But you love me.”

“Of course. Never said I didn’t.”

Mitchell pressed his nose into Anders’ hair, shutting his eyes for a few moments.

“I really don’t know what I’d do without you, you know.”

“Hmm?”

“I just mean that while you’re not the first person I’ve been in love with, I feel like you’ll probably be the last.”

Anders shifted slightly. “Mitchell…”

“I don’t know what I’ll do when you’re not around anymore. And I know it’s not something that really needs to be considered now, but I feel like the best thing I could do with you gone would be to follow you out of the world.”

“Do you really need to talk like that?” Anders asked. “Like you said, this is hardly a pressing matter and fuck, I don’t want to hear you talking about possibly killing yourself! I thought we’d moved past this.”

“I’m just thinking it might be the best thing for me to do,” Mitchell replied quietly. He thought of a stake and wondered if the fear would ever lessen. “It’ll be a long time before it becomes an issue. And maybe I don’t know for certain what I’d do. But I do know there’s no appeal to a world without you in it.”

“Mitch…” Anders looked up to meet Mitchell’s eyes. He was starting to look a bit upset. “Come on.”

“Okay, I’m sorry, I’ll stop. But you know, just because I’m not aging, it doesn’t mean we can’t have a life together.” He gave a hopeful smile. “Maybe it’ll be different but it’ll be just as good. Right?”

Anders smiled. “Right.”


End file.
